An openly gay 16-year-old Yankton boy is accusing a fast food restaurant of forcing him to wear a name tag with a homophobic slur in front of customers.

Tyler Brandt resigned from Taco John’s on Tuesday. He says he kept the name tag as evidence, and he and his father are considering suing the restaurant for discrimination.

Restaurant Manager John Scott says Brandt chose the slur himself as a nickname joke, and was not forced to wear the name tag.

Officials with Taco John’s International Inc. say they won’t investigate the matter because franchise locations are independently owned and operated. But the company says it does not tolerate workplace harassment and that franchisees are required to have anti-discrimination policies.

"He pulled me into the office and gave me a nametag that read 'Gaytard' on it and asked me to wear it. So, I put it on because I didn't want to upset him and I felt that if I did do anything to upset him, it would cause me to lose my job because he'd be looking for ways to fire me," Brandt said.

Brandt says he tried taking it off several times, but he says the manager forced him to wear it all day in front of the customers.

"I would always stay behind the till so they couldn't see the name tag, I didn't want them to see it, but even though they couldn't see it, he would still call me by the name across the store and customers would notice," Brandt said.

The abuse continue until he decided to quit.

"After I handed them over my uniform, they really didn't say anything, they just said 'ok' and when we went to walk out, he lifted out his hand and said 'Nametag?' as though he deserved to have that name tag after his son labeled me," Brandt said.

Here's video of the report:

What most concerns us is the statement from Taco John's International saying they won't be investigating the accusations. Anti-discrimination policies are useless if there's no means or intention to enforce them.

No word yet on whether the Resident Manager John Scott will face any consequences based on the allegations.

To the naysayers, how DARE you call this a hoax. You obviously have no idea what it is like to be gay in todays society. Just because one greedy slag decided to mod a receipt in no way means this is automatically a hoax. This is the type of thing LGBTQ people deal with in a work environment on a DAILY BASIS.

I refuse to presume hoax. I've dealt with this kind of discrimination crap at a mini-mart I was working at. I was told by my manager to wear the female (pink) smock, instead of the male (red). I was even asked to wear a foo-foo-looking hair clip. I refused. I even hinted at suing. Less than two months later, they eliminated the pink smocks altogether, with both genders now wearing the red.

Taco John's must be paying some sweet wages, that would have been instant resignation if my job had pulled that crap. I think this kid is full of it, not the first gay discrimination restaurant hoax people.

This is not a hoax. I know the young man. The manager admits to making him a "Gaytard" name tag but is playing it off as a joke. This manager is a bully, who is now struggling to get out of the spotlight. Read this. http://www.yankton.net/community/article_b1f60648-fce0-11e3-8113-001a4bcf887a.html

As much as I sympathize with this person, I find it very hard to believe that anyone can let this happen. even the most homophobic person in the world who owns a business would not be stupid enough to allow something like that to happen! I call shenanigans on this post and it's a complete hoax!!!

As much as I sympathize with this person, I find it very hard to believe that anyone can let this happen. even the most homophobic person in the world who owns a business would not be stupid enough to allow something like that to happen! I call shenanigans on this post and it's a complete hoax!!!

I'm not saying I have any idea why, and certainly its supposition and conjecture....but I feel like the kid probably made that nametag as a joke himself and probably is gay, but then dad found it and a lie was born---and its blossoming out of control.

Folks, I greatly sympathize with this young man...but again, is this a hoax? I only say this because of the recent KFC hoax with the little girl as well as several months ago the lesbian who worked at the restaurant in New Jersey who scribbled a derogatory comment on a receipt to make it look like a customer did it but we all found out she was the culprit...in this day and age I really want to believe something like this...but the nametag had hearts on it...you mean to tell me the manager would take his time to put hearts on something like that...or he had someone else create it. I could see this young kid being upset with something else at work and taking these means to create a controversy...again, I really want to believe him but we really need more proof that this is a credible story. I am sorry to say this but in this day and age it is unfortunate that we have to really get the facts on situations like these.